‘Medium‘ is a restrained overview of one of Europe’s largest private design collections: the one Giuseppe Bortolussi collected over a period of thirty years, starting in the 1980s. Bortolussi considered design to be an important expression of the cultural and social life of the modern and contemporary age, an element for understanding and interpreting it. He was convinced that the designs on sale from the 1950s to the 2000s were the synthesis of aesthetics and function of a topical language, capable of becoming iconic.
The ‘Bortolussi Collection‘, consisting of more than two thousand ‘pieces’, recounts through the objects created by the designers, in collaboration with the largest manufacturing companies, the transformations that have taken place in lifestyles, technology, tastes and habits. The collection has been granted to the City of Padua with an agreement, and its permanent exhibition will form the founding nucleus of an innovative and dynamic design museum, which will be housed in the Carrarese Castle. While waiting for that exhibition, on whose design a scientific committee is already working, some previews are proposed, some insights with curious and original points of view.
The exhibition ‘Medium’, curated and set up by JoeVelluto, is the second stage of the cycle ‘SML – small, medium, large’, three exhibitions united by a dimensional denominator that favours fruition on different scales: occupation in space (superficial), inter-relation (gestural) and symbolic meaning (anthropological). ‘Medium’ finds its natural context in the spacious and modular spaces of the Galleria Civica Cavour.
The exhibition, for which about seventy objects were selected, is divided into thematic areas closely related to human behaviour. In these areas, medium-sized objects are grouped together, representing conditions of human beings in the midst of… precise situations.
In the medium of Reflection, it presents objects that identify this behaviour such as comfortable chairs that facilitate concentration or represent it metaphorically, such as mirrors or objects with a reflective surface. In the medium of Speech, there are objects that encourage interaction between people such as tables and chairs for private or public spaces. In the medium of Confusion, there are objects that help to make or put things in order. And again, in the midst of Boredom, in the midst of Waiting, and in the midst of Play, one encounters objects imbued with characteristics that are both functional and narrative.
The exhibition is realised with the contribution of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo, in collaboration with Scuola Italiana Design.
Free entrance.
Cavour Civic Gallery:
– Thursday 3.30 p.m.-7.30 p.m.
– Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. / 3.30 p.m.-7.30 p.m.
Closed 26/12/2024
Monday 06/01/2025: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. / 3.30 p.m.-7.30 p.m.
Info:
Department of Culture
Tel. +39 049 8204501
https://padovacultura.padovanet.it/it/attivita-culturali/medium
